Good evening, and Happy New Year. Tonight we’re covering the best gifts for a smoother, more beautiful 2026, including:  | | NYT Wirecutter, Parallelle; illustration by Con McHugh for NYT Wirecutter |
Gift yourself an easier 2026 |
Many of us, myself included, start the new year with a resolve to buy less, to waste less, to simply want less. But in my years working here, I’ve learned those goals are sometimes best accomplished with a bit of a counterintuitive start: investing in one really great thing. Last year, Wirecutter’s journalists rigorously tested over 4,000 products — so we know a thing or two about the power of a really great product: how it can make your life easier, less tedious, or simply more beautiful. A great chef’s knife, for instance, might actually help you cook more and order in less. Or perhaps a lovely set of watercolors will do a much better (and more organic) job at keeping you from doomscrolling than setting strict time limits ever would. One does not need anything at all to commit to a cleaner, fresher, fill-in-the-blank new year. And for the record, no one needs to resolve to do anything at all, just because the calendar says so. But if you’re feeling inspired to make a change or kick-start a new habit, I’ve found a truly high-quality gift to self can help. Here are a few places to start: - All knitwear pills. But a good fabric shaver can chop off the fuzzballs and make even the most worn-and-torn sweater look new again — saving you from panic-buying new ones every season. My colleague Zoe Vanderweide recommends this “ruthlessly efficient,” comfortable-to-hold option, which cuts through fuzzies within minutes.
- This handsome, stainless chain-mail pot scrubber is surprisingly effective at scouring cast iron, glass, carbon steel, and other nonscratch surfaces. Gifts editor Hannah Morrill likes to use hers to scrub her precious Le Creuset after morning eggs. Best of all? The scrubber can be tossed right in the dishwasher afterward.
- A cult favorite in Wirecutter’s newsroom, this ingenious and very good-looking toiletries bag has myriad compartments and pockets to organize makeup, skin care, and more. I love how it smartly folds out to neatly display all of the tubs, tubes, and brushes that might otherwise be lost to the bottom of my bag.
- Our experts love this petite, splurge-worthy laundry basket not least because it’s actually pretty enough to leave out on display. So even if it takes you just as long to put your clean clothes away this year, you’ll be looking at something lovely, instead of staring at a non-aesthetic, lingering chore.
- Sometimes it’s better to acknowledge you simply are the sort of person who occasionally loses their keys and address that head-on, rather than hope 2026 is the year you’ll somehow stop being human. Enter: this chic fruit charm that beautifies a (famously ugly) AirTag, so you can prettily ping misplaced belongings and spare yourself from a full-blown crisis.
- Newsletters editor Brittney Ho is very taken by this everlasting tea towel, which snaps to form a large infinite loop for hand-drying and finger-wiping. “I can’t stand the sight of crumpled, crusty towels hanging haphazardly off the oven door,” she says. “I’m thinking this pretty striped towel will bring me a lot of joy — and help me cut way down on paper towels.”
- Personally, I’m resolving to do a little less — and sleep a little more — in 2026, and I’m hoping an old-fashioned flowy nightgown might help. Romantic, versatile, and, in the words of our gifts team: “perfect for waltzing around in the wee hours of the morning like a modern-day Jane Austen heroine.” 2026 goals, am I right?
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